HELP need to reformat hard drive without access to cd drive

[cinnamngrl]

i do have my xp cd but my cd & dvd drives are invisible. i am hoping
that if i wipe the hard drive i can start over.
how did this happen? if you must know i think it was viral (plus i am a
goober) when the cd drives disapeared, i looked the web and followed
some instructions to delete some reg keys. then mouse & keyboard
refused to work in win. the keyboard worked in recovery console so i
was able to fix that but dramatically a box came up saying that nt
something was shutting me down in 30 seconds. i realized that i had
let avast expire and disconnected the dsl. i am trying to reformat from
command prompt or rec console. i am writing to you from my palm using
my neighbor's wifi..so..pls help me.....please ...

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

i do have my xp cd but my cd & dvd drives are invisible. i am hoping
that if i wipe the hard drive i can start over.
how did this happen? if you must know i think it was viral (plus i am a
goober) when the cd drives disapeared, i looked the web and followed
some instructions to delete some reg keys. then mouse & keyboard
refused to work in win. the keyboard worked in recovery console so i
was able to fix that but dramatically a box came up saying that nt
something was shutting me down in 30 seconds. i realized that i had
let avast expire and disconnected the dsl. i am trying to reformat from
command prompt or rec console. i am writing to you from my palm using
my neighbor's wifi..so..pls help me.....please ...

Boot the machine with your WinXP CD, allow the hard disk to
be formatted, then install WinXP and all applications. You will,
of course, lose all your data.

Make sure to install your firewall and your virus scanner BEFORE
connecting the machine to the Internet.

 

[cinnamngrl]

how? my cd drive is undetectable. i do have wd little book so i backed
up all i could.

 

[--Alias--]

how? my cd drive is undetectable. i do have wd little book so i backed
up all i could.

Do you have a floppy drive? If you go into the BIOS, are the CD ROM
drives recognized?

Alias

 

[Richard Urban]

Just because Windows does not see your CD/DVD drive does NOT mean that the
computer "physically" can not see, and use, it!

Put your Windows XP CD in the tray and reboot the computer. You will be
asked to press "any key" to boot from the CD. You have to be watching the
screen carefully during the startup process for the message - and, you only
have 5 seconds to press a key.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

how? my cd drive is undetectable. i do have wd little book so i backed
up all i could.

Do this:
- Reboot the machine
- Watch the screen carefully
- Press the Pause key on your keyboard when your various
drives appear.
- Is the hard disk listed? Is the CD ROM listed? If the CD ROM
is not listed then take the machine to a repair shop and have it
checked out.
- Reboot the machine.
- Press the key that gets you into the BIOS setup. It is often the
Delete key.
- Locate the Boot menu.
- Make the CD ROM your primary boot device.
- Proceed as per my first reply.

 

[Plato]

i do have my xp cd but my cd & dvd drives are invisible. i am hoping
that if i wipe the hard drive i can start over.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316941

 

[cinnamngrl]

I was finally able to boot from the my xp cd. I pressed F8 from the
start menu and chose 4 for boot from the CD drive. Everything is
working fine now thank you for everything.